Hospitals recommended hepatitis C tests for 7,900; medical worker was accused of infecting patients

[The Straight Story]

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Hospitals across the country recommended hepatitis C testing for about 7,900 patients last summer after a traveling medical worker was accused of stealing drugs and infecting patients with tainted syringes in New Hampshire. But five months later, nearly half of those who were possibly exposed to the liver-destroying disease in other states have yet to be tested.

Described by prosecutors as a "serial infector," David Kwiatkowski is accused of stealing syringes of the powerful painkiller fentanyl from the cardiac catheterization lab at New Hampshire's Exeter Hospital and replacing them with saline-filled syringes tainted with his own blood. In jail since his arrest in July, he pleaded not guilty to 14 federal drug charges earlier this month and is expected to go to trial next fall.

Before April 2001, when he was hired in New Hampshire, Kwiatkowski worked as a traveling cardiac technologist in 18 hospitals in seven states, moving from job to job — despite being fired twice over allegations of drug use and theft.

Thirty-two people in New Hampshire have been diagnosed with the same strain of hepatitis C that Kwiatkowski carries, along with six in Kansas, five in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania. At least 3,700 people outside New Hampshire have yet to be tested, hospitals and public health officials told The Associated Press.

http://www.bigstory.ap.org/article/hepatitis-c-tests-continue-after-nh-techs-arrest

[a geek named Bob]

1. Wow... that's remarkably messed up... n/t

[Festivito]

2. Collateral damage in the drug war.

Heaven forbid we should try making people feel good about themselves. Instead, we all are embarrassed for not being millionaires yet.

[a geek named Bob]

3. did I miss something?

The person in question was infecting other people. That's not cool.

[Festivito]

6. Am I connecting too many dots here?

He's accused of using drugs. A controlled drug disappears, replaced with saline with a taint of his blood as though he had injected himself and replaced the previous contents with saline in the same hypodermic syringe. He's either using or selling.

Without the war on drugs he can get the drug more easily if he's in pain, or get help more easily if he's addicted, or not be able to sell it at a black-market price that is so tempting.

This situation is collateral damage from our war on drugs.

[a geek named Bob]

7. Wow...

I'm willing to pay higher taxes for a nationwide no-questions-asked recovery program, and I think pot should be legal (with the caveat that certain jobs and recreations should have a ban list for use.)

I also think that doing something like this should be someone charged/convicted with attempted murder.

[Festivito]

12. I think that might result in manslaughter rather than murder.

But, a few decades to think are in order.

[a geek named Bob]

13. how about 8 decades... in solitary...

only let out for hard labor...

I've no sympathy to spare for this turd that walks like a man.

[Festivito]

16. You seem to enjoy punishment too much.

You need to visit with someone in a prison. It's a Christian thing to do.

[a geek named Bob]

17. here we go

1.) Strangely enough, I worked with "court adjudicated youth" some time ago.
2.) When some one commits a heinous crime, there should be a fitting punishment. He knew he had hep C, he choose to gamble with innocent lives. He can't be trusted to abide by our laws. He basically gave up to 7990 people a - currently - incurable disease, so he could get his fix. Should we allow him to walk the streets? Why?
3.) I've stated - repeatedly - that our country should be a tax payer funded no-questions-asked nationwide addiction recovery program.
4.) When did I say I was Christian?

[Festivito]

19. and go and go

1. The youth get out by a certain age. You're not dealing with 80 years there, maybe10, usually less.
2. Heinous indeed. I think the prosecutor and judge are going to be trading prison term for complete information of what he did. Sentences could be concurrent or end-to-end depending on how our people feel about it. I cannot imagine less than ten years, yet 80,000 years is possible.
3. Yes you have. I don't know why. And, why that we should be... rather than have...?
4. I did not say you were Christian. One does not have to be a Christian in order to do a Christian thing.

It is alright to be angry. Try not to let it get the best of you. Decades, hard labor, solitary, no sympathy: seems to pile on for the sake of piling on. Justice should be our goal, not revenge.

[TheMadMonk]

10. The person in question is a drug adict.

He stole other people's drugs and returned the contaminated syringes filled with saline.

He wasn't deliberately infecting them, just didn't give a shit if/when it happened.

[a geek named Bob]

11. which kind of enforces the criminally selfish image

I hope they sue this guy until he's dead -broke, then jail him for life.

I'm for a no-questions-asked nation-wide addiction-recovery program (no cost for the patient, tax-payer funded.)

I'm also for severe penalties for this kind of shit.

[Ligyron]

4. Legalize Drugs and give syringes away

You talk about the real cost of a drug war?

Yeah, I know the guy was being a selfish, unthinking jerk, but there is an alternative.

[a geek named Bob]

5. How would that stop this kind of crime? n/t

[Butterbean]

8. Theoretically,

because then he wouldn't have to go through subversive channels to get his drug of choice, e.g., stealing from hospitals. He could go directly to a dealer or to a free donor clinic (which I suspect would crop up if drugs were legalized), thereby lowering (not eliminating, it's still a chance someone would do it) the chance of someone stealing fentanyl filled syringes from a hospital to use them and put them back, only to infect thousands of others.

[a geek named Bob]

9. If someone infects others, immediate life imprisonment and hard labor.

I'm for certain drugs being legal... and as I said, I like a no-questions-asked nation-wide addiction recovery program. (Funded via tax money.

Certain drugs are just trouble: speed, coke, PCP... "evil in and of itself..."

[Ligyron]

14. It wouldn't - but it would make it less likely

Hundreds of people who were in pain are now potentially infected with HEP C 'cause this jerk didn't have a legal means to get opioid.

He's still a criminal - manslaughter at minimum. Actions do have consequences.

but some actions can be made less likely to happen and this type of shit is surely one of them.

BTW, How did he get the HEP C anyway? Shooting dope with people re-using syringes - 'cause they're not widely available that's how.

A 2 cent syringe might have prevented that at some point.

[a geek named Bob]

15. As I've said - repeatedly -

I'm for a no-question-asked taxpayer-funded recovery program.

For mr. infecter? I've give him 80 years, before parole.

[mick063]

18. I expect more of this type of thing.

We are in a situation where a single person in a multitude of occupations can seriously harm a large amount of people. The copycats get inspired. One person poisons asprin bottles and others soon mimic the deed. A person shoots up a school and it sets the precedent for others to follow.

When a lab, factory, or processing plant can churn out assembly line products for us to consume, it only take one disturbed mind to affect many. For every case reported, how many go unreported?

How much deliberately tainted soda pop have you drank? How many infected serums have been injected in to you? Ecoli on spinach leaves. Was it simply an accident?